The Virginia baseball team's ACC-topping offense may be firing on all cylinders, but the Cavaliers need to answer the slew of questions surrounding the starting rotation before they can sweep the three-game series at home against Wake Forest which kicks off Saturday.
Coach Brian O'Connor's emerging offense has proven to be one of the deepest lineups in his nine-year tenure at Virginia. The Cavaliers (19-10-1, 6-6 ACC) boast seven regulars batting above .300 and the team tops the ACC in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
The big bats in the middle of the order - junior third baseman Stephen Bruno, senior first baseman Jared King and freshman outfielder Derek Fisher - combined to drive in seven runs against James Madison Wednesday, and nine-hole hitter senior second baseman Keith Werman extended his career-long hitting streak to 14 games to power a 15-5 win.
"I think that's the great thing about this team," King said. "Once we start stringing some quality at-bats together, it just seems to go from one guy to the next."
The 2012 season has been uncharacteristic for a program which boasts the lowest cumulative ERA of any team since 2004. Offensive outbursts often offset hit-or-miss starting pitching and a talented but inconsistent bullpen. After posting the lowest single-season ERA of any team in the nation since 1992 last year, this year's Virginia squad is just sixth in the ACC with a 3.35 ERA.
The Cavaliers' already inexperienced staff absorbed a blow Tuesday when the team announced junior Whit Mayberry - the team's most veteran starter - would miss the remainder of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Mayberry's injury leaves Virginia with three weekend starters who combined to make just one start in 2011.
With Mayberry on the shelf, O'Connor will give the ball to junior Branden Kline for the series opener Saturday, senior Scott Silverstein Sunday and sophomore Artie Lewicki Monday.
Kline, who tied a program record with 18 saves while serving as the team's closer last year, has been nearly unhittable in recent weeks. He struck out a career-high 10 batters in the Cavaliers' lone win against N.C. State last weekend, has made three straight quality starts and was named ACC Pitcher of the Week after his complete game two-hitter against Clemson two weeks ago.
Silverstein pitched just 14.1 innings in 2011 after his return from a shoulder injury, only making one start. The tall lefty has been the most dependable arm in the Virginia rotation so far with a 2.68 ERA, good for 14th in the ACC. Lewicki, the youngest of the three weekend starters, pitched 9.1 innings as a freshman last year but was promoted to weekend starter after Mayberry's initial injury. He demonstrated good poise in Raleigh, holding the Wolfpack to two runs during 5.1 innings of work Sunday with good location on his low-90s fastball.
The trio will face a veteran Wake Forest (19-11, 5-7 ACC) squad which ranks among the highest scoring teams in the ACC. The Demon Deacons' lineup is built around junior shortstop Pat Blair, who leads the conference in runs scored, and senior first baseman Carlos Lopez, who leads the conference in RBIs.
Wake Forest went on an impressive run earlier this season before N.C. State slowed the Demon Deacons' momentum. The Wolfpack swept Wake Forest to snap a 15-game winning streak, and Florida State and North Carolina each took two-of-three to drop the Demon Deacons to third in the Atlantic Division. Wake Forest, which has not made an NCAA appearance since 2007, has lost four straight to Virginia by an average of more than 11 runs.\nThe Cavaliers had a recent six-game winning streak of their own snapped by N.C. State. Just when it seemed Virginia would turn the corner with a key series victory, the Wolfpack rallied for a walk-off win against senior closer Justin Thompson to take the decisive third game.
"That's been the story of our year so far - trying to maintain consistency," O'Connor said. "When we have a difficult weekend, we've always bounced back. When we got swept down in Florida State, our guys responded over the next week to go on a good winning streak. As disappointed as we were by not winning the series at N.C. State, we were right there and had the opportunity to, so it was great to see our guys bounce back [against James Madison] and have a really good performance."
The Cavaliers followed Sunday's taxing loss with another mid-week offensive explosion against the Dukes Wednesday. No late-inning letdowns took place, but rather nine solid frames and a nine-run fourth crushed the Dukes for Virginia's fourth consecutive midweek win by eight or more runs.\n"I had a discussion with the ballclub yesterday that one of the qualities of a team that we still need to prove to each other is that we are capable, when we have opportunities, to put a ballclub away and we certainly did that tonight," O'Connor said of Wednesday's game. "That doesn't necessarily mean just offensively. It also means on the mound and defensively."
On the mound, the Cavaliers face junior Brian Holmes, who is fifth in the conference with a 1.87 ERA and boasts an ACC-best .178 batting average against. They also step into the box against junior Tim Cooney, who is fifth in the ACC with 44 strikeouts - one behind Kline.
"It appears to me that Wake Forest has been preparing for this year for the last couple of years," O'Connor said. "The last two years they've been pitching younger pitchers, playing younger position players, building to have the kind of ballclub they have this year, which is a more veteran team than they've had in the past."
First pitch will be at 4 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. Monday.
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